Video is a read-through of this same text below, with footage.

Star Wars has been a fairly big part of my life being the first VHS I ever purchased for myself, and the fact that my cat is called Chewie (yes, really). Certainly among my favorite film franchises, I definitely have a lot of passion for it, but never really played the games based upon it. In fact I’d have to say that the last Star Wars games I really enjoyed were TIE Fighter and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter from back in the 90’s, and that was probably just because of the space combat.

Before I talk about the game itself, I should mention that I listened to the Inferno Squad audiobook by Christie Golden over a period of a couple of months before playing the game at all. The backstory on the main character in Battlefront II, Iden Versio of Special Forces unit Inferno Squad, begins at the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV, and focuses largely on the infiltration of her Imperial unit into the remnants of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans. Saw Gerrara himself having been killed in the destruction of Jedha in the Rogue One movie.

It’s a decent backstory that is worth a listen or a read if you’re a super-fan, though certainly not essential before playing the game. It gives a good insight into who the main character is and what she’s capable of, but it’s a bit of a weak story. Though I do understand it is merely a fleshed-out backstory and I can accept that for what it is, I did feel it ended a bit too abruptly. Much more time was spent fleshing out details early on, but once things came together at the end of the story it just seemed to stop so suddenly. Again, I sort of get it, and maybe it’s due to the fact the story continues in Battlefront II, the game.

The very same way that the book ending feels so sudden, as does the storyline beginning Battlefront II’s campaign mode because you’re not really told much about your main character, so maybe that’s a plus for reading the book… Without giving away too much about the campaign, it doesn’t mess around in showing you why this woman is in the position she is. Some of the early missions seem easy, but I feel they were perhaps designed that way to show you how incredibly good she is at her job. Remember ‘that’ Darth Vader scene in Rogue One? Yeah, like that.

Iden Versio and ID10 (her droid).

The campaign begins shortly before the destruction of the second Death Star (Return of the Jedi) and ends at the formation of the First Order (The Force Awakens), and for any Star Wars fan is a must-play. So if you want to imagine this being Star Wars 6.5, that’s right about where it fits. It certainly includes a number of storyline elements that I had never heard before, and all those things are now considered Star Wars canon.

I’m about to sound fairly negative, but the fact is that I enjoyed the playthrough. I just feel a little bit misled on what I was going to be playing, because although this is billed as ‘playing the villain’ it feels like nothing of the sort, both because you also get to play sections of the campaign as Luke Skywalker, Lando Calrissian, Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo and Kylo Ren, and also because that’s just not how the storyline ends up feeling to you as a player.

There is an un-balanced feel to the missions, and some begin to feel monotonous or ultimately pointless; You get to walk around a bar as Han Solo listening in on conversations in order to find out who you should be talking to – why? This isn’t Skyrim! Missions like that just make it feel like EA were desperate to use their character set and stick someone like Han Solo in at the expense of the campaign. They frankly rip the campaign apart and don’t add the atmosphere they probably thought it would. And why would I NOT control the main character of the game in a battle where she takes part, and instead fight rather randomly as other major Star Wars characters? The main character is superb, the story is supposed to be hers, why not stick with that? Why not stick with her?

The non-DLC main campaign I’m covering in this piece is also rather short, as it took me around five hours to complete – and I’m not that good in first-person shooter games. Also, about one and a half hours of that were either ‘dead stick’ gameplay where you’re just listening to dialogue while walking or flying, or cutscenes (see video below). I have to estimate it only having around three hours of player-driven gameplay.

SPOILERS: A complete edit of the cutscenes and important in-game dialogue. Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes.

Battlefront II is a beautiful game with textures, 3D modelling, and audio of the quality you’d probably expect from a AAA title. This has actually drawn me into a second playthrough, because I want to take a closer look at everything, maybe take some screenshots, and enjoy the visuals and ambiance a bit more than I did the first time. This is made a little bit easier due to the fact that you can replay specific missions anytime you want to, and that I found a tool that allows you to manipulate the in-game camera (more on that later). Plus, it’s Star Wars – I want to see it again!

Most of the level maps have multiple ways to complete them, and this lends itself to the use of stealth and careful planning. You can use a good variety of weapons and skill upgrades to alter the combat and support your play style, but ultimately in whatever route I chose to take through the map, I always found myself picking off targets at a distance with a long range weapon, while using the same set of upgrades.

There are some irritating things about the game that make you realize these are staged sets, and the AI don’t really attempt to seek you out at any time. They’ll follow patrol routes and only really react even to an alarm when they look right at you. This means you can often sit in one location and pick off all of the triggered AI, and then just move onto the next trigger point whenever you feel like it… That’s where it starts to feel monotonous. If your health gets low, retreat for a few seconds and you’re good to go again. Though this seems to be a common issue with first person shooters.

Note: These scores are based on the main single player campaign only.
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Check out more screenshots I’ve taken in Battlefront II on this page.

Now, are you ready for some spoilers? Let me expand on my thoughts above…

[spoiler title=’ Thoughts on the Campaign Storyline’]In the Inferno Squad book by Christie Golden, the team infiltrate a band of rebels, alienating their friends and family – albeit temporarily – by appearing to be defectors from the Empire. They even take part in missions where they are publicly involved in the murder of Imperial citizens, including children, to maintain their cover. Iden Versio (the main character in the Battlefront II main story) seems resolutely loyal to the Empire, but is very clearly portrayed as distant to her father. And that’s putting it nicely. During her time with the rebels she gained a certain level of respect for them though, and towards the end she actually let someone live and lied to her father about it.

Iden’s apparent hatred shown on her face for the rebels at the beginning of the Battlefront II’s main story seems a little misplaced after listening to the book, while her later criticism of the Emperor failing to devise ways to protect the Death Star does as well. I don’t really feel like they did a good enough job of showing her realizing that she’s on the wrong side, although I do believe the timing of it makes sense in Operation Cinder.

Operation Cinder is the final order of the newly-dead Emperor, and is a false flag attack by the Empire upon it’s own homeworld. Whether the Emperor intended to sacrifice the Death Star and himself with it is unknown, but it certainly makes sense in founding the First Order for this whole series of events to take place, as nothing gives you the power to increase military spending and control as pretending your opponent is more capable of your destruction than they truly are. It is this attack that allows Iden Versio and select members of her Inferno Squad team to realize who the Empire really is, and who her father really is.

Once Iden turns to the rebellion, I feel the fact she is immediately trusted by rebels to be a little far-fetched or even rushed, and again the prequel book doesn’t help me with this. It took Saw Gerrera’s Partisans the entire length of the book to trust her, while in Battlefront II it takes a couple of sentences. And this is why I feel misled about what Battlefront II’s main story actually is.

You’ll barely begin the second mission on Endor when Iden begins to question the Emperor, and by the fourth mission you’re controlling Luke Skywalker. Why!? The only important information to arise from that mission is that a member of Inferno Squad discovers that Luke has some of the powers the Emperor had, thereby questioning what they knew about Luke and their Emperor. The very next mission is based around Operation Cinder, where their defection to the rebels is pretty much complete the moment the cutscenes end, and the mission begins.

This means that in a very real sense you only get one mission playing the ‘bad guy’ that every media outlet and EA tried to push this product as. You then get missions with Iden Versio the rebel, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Princess Leia Organa and a vague ‘experience’ controlling Kylo Ren. This is really disappointing for me, because although I did enjoy the playthrough, did enjoy the storyline, I just can’t get over what a missed opportunity this really is. Darn it.[/spoiler]